SUN

Be encouraged to participate in the poll at right, based on the December 4th blog.

It's way too late in the year to even be talking about it, but I miss the SUN. I was out shoveling snow tonight and it made me think about how much I miss summer already. I can't imagine what people in upper Alaska and Sweden and Norway and Russia do when the sun disappears for months at a time. Some definite cases of Light Deprivation Therapy needed. That isn't even our situation here, yet already I'm mourning the disappearance of the Wisconsin sun. And winter isn't even here officially.

I should be talking about the beauties of the SNOW right now, I know - because it IS beautiful in its own right - but I miss the sun. For centuries the sun has been a cultural obsession. We flock to it for vacations, turn our faces to it at lunchtime outdoors - and if we can't get to it often enough, we pretend we've gotten it by lying in tanning beds or spraying ourselves various shades of orange. Today, there are three times as many tanning parlors as there are Starbucks franchises.

And all of that is true even though we know full well how dangerous the sun is. 93% of Americans know too much exposure to it is harmful to their skin, but 81% think they look better after they've been out under it.

And yet - there is the 'other,' numerically-growing crowd ... those who approach summertime with big, floppy hats and seventeen coats of PH sun protection just to go to work. In an office. I don't think they're WRONG necessarily. Skin cancer IS the most common form of cancer in America in 2008. A couple of states out East have passed laws making it illegal for children under 14 to even be in tanning beds, period.

NOW - to make matters worse - we have GLOBAL WARMING talk ... supposed thinning ozone layers ... more susceptibility to dangerous rays ... etc. etc. etc. We can't win, can we? Now in future generations we're just going to get hotter without the benefit and comfort of knowing that at least we're also getting tanner.

I just needed to say that right now - today - even though the full winter still lies in front of us and it will be months before the actual warmth of the sun comes back to us. I just had to say it.

And be blessed.